


You Were Supposed to Leave

by PussNHikingBoots



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: M/M, Season 2 Finale Alternate Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-03 14:39:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1748168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PussNHikingBoots/pseuds/PussNHikingBoots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A more Hannigrammy ending for S2.<br/>Happier Hannigram with less blood, less pain, and many less tears from the Fandom. (There will still be some blood, some pain, and some tears.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fly Away Hannigram

**Author's Note:**

> Room #1: shout out to Psycho
> 
> I do not use beta, so please send any errors/corrections you may find to: pussnhikingboots@gmail.com

"You were supposed to leave," says Will. He is confused, scared for Jack, wracked by seeing Alana lying nearly dead at the front door, bowled over by seeing Abigail alive after all this time. And now, Hannibal is still here when he should have run. Will gave him plenty of time to run, plenty of warning, but Hannibal did not take it. "We couldn't leave without you," says Hannibal, his eyes reflecting a depth of hurt Will has never seen in anybody. They stare at each other as the sirens approach. Hannibal's eyes flick towards the sound and his demeanor changes instantly. He gestures for Abigail to grab his hand and she hurries forward, used to obeying him. Hannibal grabs Will with the other hand. "We need to go now. Come with me, I parked about half a mile up through the woods, but we have to leave now if we have any chance."

There is no time to deliberate. Will and Abigail allow Hannibal to lead them out the back door at a run, disappearing into the woods. Hands clasped in Hannibal's, they proceed at an uncomfortable but steady clip. Finally, Will sees the glint of an unfamiliar car, parked just off the road where they can easily pull out and be on their way. 'Smart,' thinks Will, without surprise. Hannibal's Bentley would have been too easy for the cops to spot. Will head towards the car, running ahead of Hannibal, but Hannibal jerks him back and the three of them come to an abrupt halt. Hannibal lets go of Abigail's hand, confident that she will stay by his side as she has done for months. He produces a linoleum knife from his pocket and shoves Will up against a tree, pressing the knife into his belly just hard enough for Will to feel the sting of the tip break his skin. Hannibal's other arm presses into Will's throat, pushing him up against the tree so that Will cannot move. When Hannibal speaks, Will is terrified by the anger and ashamed by the hurt that he hears in his voice. "I was saving Abigail as a surprise for you, Will. For our new life together. I gave you several chances to come clean, but you have betrayed me. I will give you one more chance now, but if you still can't tell me the truth, I will gut you like a fish."

Will is shaking and sweating, Hannibal's arm pressing uncomfortably into his throat, and fully aware of the cold blade at his belly. He knows that Hannibal will indeed gut him. Will looks to Abigail and bases his decision on the look of horror washing over her face. "Yes," he says quickly, doing his best to get the words out in his compromised position. "I betrayed you. I lied to you. I was working for Jack, but I was also getting closer to you at the same time. I wasn't expecting...wasn't expecting us to get so close. I didn't want you to be caught, I thought you would run."

"Tell me the lie," demands Hannibal, pressing the knife further into the flesh of Will's stomach. Will gasps at the sharp pain. "I lied about Freddie Lounds," he blurts out. "I let you believe that I'd killed her. I let you believe that we had eaten her flesh for dinner, but it was Randall. I knew I couldn't fool you with nonhuman meat, so it was Randall. Freddie was safe. She came to my house and found the remains of the display you and I put together, so I couldn't just let her go, but I couldn't kill her either. She's innocent. I made a deal with her instead: exclusive rights, but she was to keep her mouth shut until after you were caught. Jack was in on it. He set up the funeral and the dental records and everything else for her to be pronounced dead. It was all meant to catch you. It was all a ruse."

Hannibal lets up slightly on his hold on Will's throat and backs the blade a fraction off his stomach. "You played me for a fool?" he says. "Any other lies?"

"No – that's the lie. Freddie Lounds was the lie. The rest of it was all true. I let you draw your own conclusions most of the time, but I never lied about anything but her."

While Hannibal is occupied with Will, Abigail sees her opportunity to get away. She takes off, tearing through the forest at a blind run. Hannibal drops his hold on Will and starts after her, shouting, "Abigail! Don't you leave us. Don't you dare leave us!" But Will is on him, quick as a flash, running as hard as he can and pouncing to bring Hannibal to the forest floor. He lands on top of Hannibal, gripping at his back to keep him from getting up again and pursuing Abigail. "Let her go! Let her go!" pleads Will. "Take me instead. Let her have her life, you can have mine. You can kill me or take me with you, but let her have her life." 

At these words, Hannibal ceases trying to scramble to his feet and instead flips around and pins Will to the ground in a reversal of roles. He hovers over Will, searching his eyes. "Are you lying to me again?" he demands. "No," says Will, "If you let her go, you can take me instead. I will go away with you. Hannibal. She is an adult now. She's not going to want to stay with us for long, she will want to have her own life, go to college, date, find a job... would you deny her that? You won't want to let her go once she's with us. So let her go now. Let her try to make some kind of life for herself." 

"The three of us are supposed to be together," says Hannibal, clinging to the delusional fantasy that must have filled his head for months.

"I know," says Will softly, touching Hannibal's arm. "I know she was part of your plan, and I can't tell you how happy I am that you didn't kill her, but it's better for her to be out on her own in the world. It doesn't mean that we will never see her again, but it means that she has a chance to be happy. Let her have that. You and I can be happy together. We can be happy knowing that she's happy and alive. Take me instead. I'll come away with you. It can still be what you planned, but just the two of us." Will realizes the full extent of what he is negotiating for. If Hannibal accepts his offer, Abigail will live, but Will's life as he knows it will be gone forever. He will have to give in to his dark side and accept it fully. There would be no turning back. For him to try to reverse the decision now would mean a slow, agonizing death. Hannibal is locking Will's body into the ground still eyeing him with suspicion, but his gaze has softened. "If I let her go you will come away with me?" He asks. "If you're lying to me, you know I can track her down any time. It doesn't matter that she is getting away now. You know I can track her down."

"Yes," says Will, "I know you can. I'm not lying to you. Not now. I'm willing to share my life with you."

"You'll come away with me, and you'll be with me forever?" asks Hannibal the slightest hint of desperation entering his voice.

"Yes," says Will, "I will be with you forever."

Hannibal continues to search Will's eyes for a moment and when he finds only stark openness, his own eyes lose their demonic edge. He sits back on his heels, freeing up Will's torso and his hand moves to caress Will's face, wiping the sweat and the mud from his forehead, brushing his hair back, running his thumb over Will's cheek and curling his hand to run his knuckles across the side of Will's throat. "You'll stay with me forever," says Hannibal.

"Forever," says Will.

Finally, Hannibal seems satisfied. He helps Will to his feet. "Then we need to go now," says Hannibal and he ushers Will towards the car. Will gets into the passenger side and Hannibal into the driver side. Hannibal starts up the car, pulls onto the side road and takes off, fast enough to get where he's going, but not fast enough to draw attention if any police should be in the area. They are silent for a good 20 minutes. Each in his own thoughts. Will is wondering if he will regret this decision, but he thinks about Abigail and feels that he made the right choice. He sacrificed his own life for hers and even the thought that she is alive in the world and that he might one day see her again fills him with a warmth that he did not know he was capable of feeling. Then his thoughts turn back to what his new life is going to look like, and all he can see is cold blackness. He has no idea what's in store for him, good or bad. He knows he won't have a lot of say in the matter. At least not at first. "Where are we going?" asks Will, his eyes on the passing road. "Airport," says Hannibal. "I already have tickets. Three of them, but of course we will only need two now. We'll stop at a motel to wash up and change."

"You already have bags packed, don't you?" asks Will, turning to look at him.

"Yes. In the trunk. Everything is all set."

Will looks back at the road and doesn't ask any more questions. 

Hannibal has a few untraceable prepaid phones available in the glove compartment. He tells Will to call somebody to take care of Will's dogs and find good homes for them. He knows how important these dogs are to Will, and he doesn't want to downplay that. He wants Will to know that he made the right choice. That he will be taken care of. They pull up to a pay-by-the-hour/don't tell motel. The clerk notices the mud and the blood, but he's trained not to judge and carefully avoids eye contact. He takes Hannibal's cash and hands him the key to room #1 with instructions to leave it in the drop box on the way out. “One hour,” he says. They are there just long enough to take showers and put fresh clothes on. Hannibal has packed away some of Will's clothes. Will hadn't even noticed that they'd been taken from his home. Hannibal also has a first aid kit in the trunk, and he patches the knife wound on Will's stomach, forcing himself not to linger. When they are both presentable, they get in the car and head to the airport.


	2. Two Bedrooms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannibal and Will are off to a tentative start in their new life together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this took FOREVER to post. I've had this chapter sitting for a long time just waiting to be edited. Here it is - a little sparse, I think, but I hope somebody likes it.

Hannibal and Will are sitting next to each other in first class on the way to France. Will has never been in first class before, but his thoughts are such that he can hardly appreciate it. He accepts the complimentary drink that is offered to him, downing it quickly to comfort himself. Not long after, he is sound asleep. Hannibal watches for a moment, then brings his hand up to rest on top of Will's before letting himself drift off. The flight is long, but both of them sleep most of the time from sheer exhaustion.

After landing and going through Customs, they take a taxi to a place that Hannibal has already picked out. It is a modest apartment with two bedrooms and a small kitchen. They bring their scant luggage inside. Will looks around. "Abigail was supposed to have one of these bedrooms," says Hannibal. "We'll move to another apartment soon to cut down on the cost now that we'll only need one." Will glances his way. "One bed?" he asks.

"Will, if we are going to share a life, than we are going to share a bed also," says Hannibal, as if this should be glaringly obvious. Will swallows but says nothing. He is not exactly surprised, but he is trepidatious. He wants to say more on the subject, but words are failing him at the moment. He's still physically and mentally exhausted even though he slept for hours on the plane. It's dinnertime in France, and Hannibal insists that they go out for a nice meal to celebrate the first night of their new life. Hannibal tells him not to expect this type of treatment every night. "I have plenty of money put away," he says, "but for the first few months at least, we're going to have to live on what I have on hand and be very conservative. I do not want the use of my bank account to coincide directly with my disappearance even though everything is in a different name. It would be too easy to track. We need to lay low and both be on our best behavior. Do you understand?” Will just nods. They spend the evening over a beautiful and extravagant French meal that extends for three hours.

They don't get back to the apartment until midnight, both ready for bed again. Will rummages through the suitcase that Hannibal packed for him and pulls out something to wear to bed while Hannibal is in the bathroom getting ready. Will thinks perhaps he better sleep in Abigail's room, but he's not sure which is which. He'll wait for Hannibal to get into bed and then decide. Hannibal comes out and stands there looking at Will for a moment. Then he takes his hand and leads him into the one of the bedrooms. "Well, I think this will be our room for a couple of days until we can switch to a one-bedroom." Seems Will doesn't have a choice anymore. Obviously, he won't be sleeping in Abigail's bed. He sits at the edge of the too-small double mattress and Hannibal goes to the other side, slipping under the sheets. Will lays down on top of the coverlet, facing away from him. As far away as he can get without falling off the edge. Hannibal eyes him, but doesn't say anything and soon they're both asleep.

*************

Will's eyes flutter open with the morning sun, and the first thing he sees is somebody else's masculine arm draped across his chest. He stares, confused at first, but with a dawning realization. Hannibal is sleeping behind him, his arm thrown across him in a casual embrace. Will starts to roll over onto his back, waking Hannibal. He stretches his torso out full length, admitting an unintentional sound of bodily pleasure as he does so, the stiffness and soreness finally beginning to wane. Hannibal is watching and listening, but makes no indication of just how much this sight pleases him. He thinks Will looks very much like a cat in a moment of feline grace. Hannibal pulls his arm away from Will's chest and starts to caress him up and down the length of his body, very lightly, non-threateningly; almost an after-thought. Will allows him this for a moment then says, flatly, "So...you have a _sexual_ interest in me now?" "Mmm," murmurs Hannibal in agreement. "Do you have none in me?" asks Hannibal, avoiding a direct answer as is common for him.

"No. I don't think so. I don't know. I never thought about it. I've never wanted to be with a man." Will gets out of the bed and heads towards the shower.


End file.
